


hope is like a drug in this wild wild world

by 5sexualhomos



Category: One Direction (Band), The Gifted (TV 2017)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Mutants, Angst, Ben winston is a dick and gets what he deserves in this fic, Blood, Empath, Everyone is a mutant basically, Fluff, M/M, Mind Control, Minor Violence, Mutant Rights, Mutantphobia, No Sex, Past Character Death, Sound Manipulation, Technopathy, Telekinesis, Teleportation, X-Men References, X-ray Vision, i think thats all of them tbh, image projection as an ability, metal manipulation, mutant slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-09 16:41:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14719787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5sexualhomos/pseuds/5sexualhomos
Summary: Louis is a mutant who has been on the run for months, from Sentinel Services, the branch of the government responsible for catching mutants and torturing them. He prefers to stay alone, but when an accident exposes him and a friend. He must team up with an underground group of mutants to fight for what's right.





	hope is like a drug in this wild wild world

**Author's Note:**

> Ahhh i can't believe I've finally finished this fic!!!! I came up with this idea like six months ago and it's finally being put out into the world. And I'm so so excited about it. This is the longest fic I've ever written and it was a bit daunting to set out to write it and honestly still can't believe i actually finished it!! There was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that went into this fic. 
> 
> So the thing about this fic is that it takes place in the Marvel universe, it's mostly based on the show The Gifted and not any of the movies or actual comics. i am not a hardcore X-Men fan but i love mutants or meta humans whatever you want to call humans with natural occuring abilities then i like it. 
> 
> Thank you to every one of my betas, especially [rainbowninja](http://www.rainbowninja.tumblr.com), For helping me to plan when i was stuck as hell. 
> 
> And of course I can't forget to thank the amazing [pass-the-pencil](http://www.pass-the-pencil.tumblr.com) for her wonderfully beautifully drawn art that she worked so so hard on, and also put up with my procrastinating ass. 
> 
> Also a massive thanks to the BB mods for letting me post a little bit beyond my deadline, you guys are the bomb and thank you so much for letting those of us in the original BB join yours!!!!
> 
> I really really hope you guys love this fic as much as I do.

Louis walks briskly along the pavement, trying his best to go unnoticed. His shoulders are hunched, and the hood of his jacket is pulled down as far as it can go so it covers some of his face. The hairs on the back of his neck are standing straight up. He glances over his shoulder. He can sense someone following him; it’s an unsettling feeling that he’s unfortunately become accustomed to ever since he's been on the run. He closes his eyes for a brief moment as he conjures the image of an old teacher from primary school. He projects the image behind him, so that when people look at his back they will see a six foot three inch tall, bald, man in a green knit sweater and chinos, holding a worn briefcase in one hand and a phone to his ear with the other. Louis looks around him as soon as the projection is up to make sure nobody around him realized what just occurred. Everyone either has their nose in their phone or headphones in their ears. For once, that is a blessing.

The pavement is crowded, the city bustling on a Tuesday afternoon with Londoners going about their everyday lives and tourists taking pictures of everything they see. All of them are completely oblivious that a mutant is among them, just having used his powers. Louis isn't naive enough to think he’s the only mutant in the London streets right this second; they’re all forced to hide now.

Everyone used to practically worship mutants. He was only seven when the X-Men disappeared and since then things have changed a lot, and not for the better. Nobody knows how some of the most powerful beings on Earth just vanished without a trace. It was headline news for about six months and then people seemed to just get on with their lives. At the time, Louis didn't understand how people could just forget about all these amazing people who saved the world from extinction because some bad guy wanted to make people suffer for some inane reason. They were heroes, and at that age Louis had hoped and prayed to any sort of almighty being that he could be a mutant too and go to a school designed just for him and other mutants. He can't help but scoff at how stupid he was back then. What he hadn’t seen was that not everyone liked mutants; didn't know that some people treated them like they weren’t even human. 

Someone roughly grabs Louis forearm, the fingernails digging into his skin, effectively pulling him back into the present. Louis struggles to get away from whoever it is, but he’s not strong enough to escape the person’s grip. He can’t believe he was stupid enough to let his guard down even for a second. He’s been on the run nearly nine months now and just broke his biggest fucking rule. 

“Don’t try anything, you know how this goes mutie,” a familiar voice says harshly into his ear. It’s his nemesis. There’s really no other word for the government agent who has come close to catching him nearly five times now. The agent's name is Ben Winston and Louis hates him with every fiber of his being. Mostly because Ben wants to put Louis in some sort of government facility where they experiment on mutants - or worse. Also because Ben is an egotistical maniac who thinks he’s the greatest Sentinel Services agent in the history of the world just because he's bagged ten mutants in four months or something like that. Louis isn’t entirely sure, he stopped listening to his villainous gloating about a minute after their first run-in. 

“Fuck you, Winny,” Louis spits out. He can feel a stun gun pressed to the small of his lower back, another feeling that he’s become used to since being on the run. It doesn’t stop him from trying to get out of Ben’s clutches. “So glad you missed me. Unfortunately grade-A fuckwads aren’t my type.” The agent doesn’t respond to Louis’ joust, so he tries again. “What? No foreplay this time around? Sad, I was really looking forward to it.” Still nothing. Louis is about to say something else when Winston herds him off into a much less busy alleyway. The agent pushes him roughly against the side of a building. Louis’ shoulder blades make contact with the brick wall and he winces at the sharp pain that floods his system. “Atta boy, Winny. Now we're getting somewhere.”

“You really can’t shut your fucking mouth for one minute, can you?” Ben spits out. He pushes harder against Louis’ shoulders. “All of you fucking mutants are so cocky, even when you’ve been caught. You know what? I think that you need to be knocked down a few pegs.” Ben quickly takes his right hand off Louis’ shoulder and brings it back. The next thing Louis knows, pain is blooming throughout his stomach and he’s doubled over, clutching his abdomen. 

“You're an arsehole,” Louis grunts in between breaths. 

“I'm doing the right thing by hunting your kind down. All of you mutants are a threat to the safety of this planet.” Ben grips the back of Louis’ neck and pulls him up straight so they're face to face. “I think you're a little pale too, you could use some color. I'll just tell everyone at the office that you attacked me like the savage mutie you are, and that I just had to defend myself.” Ben pulls back his fist once more, but before he can punch Louis again. Louis projects the image of a young woman with long blonde hair, wearing a tight dress and stilettos. 

“Help me! Please somebody help me!” Louis yells in a girlish voice. He doesn't feel the best about playing the damsel in distress card, but there's not really any other option at this point, and it was the first thing that came to mind. “Please help!” 

The look on Ben’s face is priceless. His eyebrows are furrowed and his cheeks grow redder by the second. Louis knows he’ll be able to sleep a little easier tonight after seeing that expression on the agent’s face. 

“Let her go!” A man yells as he steps into the alleyway and walks towards them. Louis stops shouting. An immediate sense of relief washes over him, he doesn’t know what he would’ve done if nobody had come to his rescue…well, the girl’s rescue. 

“This isn’t what it looks like,” Ben replies confidently, keeping Louis pinned to the wall, only putting more force behind his efforts. 

“It looks like you’re holding a young woman against her will.” The man grabs Ben’s shoulder. “Let. Her. Go.” 

Louis sees that the stranger’s knuckles are white, seemingly ready to punch Ben at a moments notice, he really hopes so anyway, that would just be the cherry on top on top of this shit sundae. He just needs the man to occupy Ben’s attention for a few seconds and he can bolt. However, Ben doesn’t listen to the man, being the arrogant knob that he is. If anything his grip on Louis tightens. The other man lays a hand on Ben’s left shoulder, managing to pull Ben’s hand off Louis. In one swift movement, Ben lets go of Louis’ other shoulder, and swivels around to land a punch squarely on the man’s jaw. 

Louis sends a silent thanks to whatever higher power is looking out for him, and doesn't hesitate to sprint in the opposite direction that he came from. He projects a vague image of his surroundings behind him so that Ben can’t see him at all. Louis keeps the pace up, not giving a single fuck that he’s rudely shoving people to the side. He keeps the projection up the entire time he runs, making random turns as he goes to throw of Ben just in case he might be close behind. 

There will definitely be reports of strange activity tomorrow in this area, and it’ll be blamed on mutants. (It always is, but in this case it’s kind of fair.) Louis has to get out of London as quickly as possible. Sure, he can move to a different neighborhood, but that would only work for so long. If Ben knows he’s somewhere in London then he’s not safe. There’s a good chance that the next time they meet will be the last, Louis just has a gut feeling. He’s been lucky before, but Ben isn’t the kind of person who’s afraid to bring out the big guns if necessary, and after today all bets are off. 

After five minutes of running at full speed, Louis stops in another alleyway to catch his breath. Louis would be surprised if Ben was still after him. Once he gathers his bearings and figures out where he is, he decides to take the Tube. He could easily walk the twenty-five minutes to his makeshift home, but he can’t risk it. It’s dangerous enough to even be going back, but he only has a few possessions in this world and he can’t bear to leave them behind. He also needs to check in with his friend Ed, they’ve both been running from Sentinel Service agents together for almost a month now. They both happened to choose the same dilapidated building to hide out in, and they became friends almost immediately, realizing they had much more in common than just running from the government. 

Louis sneaks into the building through the hidden entrance that's behind a rusty fridge that was left in the alley. He and Ed moved it one night in front of their makeshift entrance so they wouldn't be seen coming and going from the front of the building on the busy street. He's still amazed that their hiding place hasn't been found in the entire time they've been there. Louis navigates his way through the narrow space and around the booby traps with the kind of agility that only comes from knowing exactly where not to step. He sucks in his stomach to squeeze through the last of their traps. It’s just a few stacks of boxes side by side that come up to Louis’ waist and one that towers above the rest, as well as Louis. They’re meant to hide the fact that behind them is yet another crawl space. Ed and him haven't actually had any sort of intruder for the past month so they don't know if their booby traps are effective or not, but it gives both of them a small sense of security, which is everything in their new world of uncertainty on the run. When Louis makes it past the last of the boxes without a hitch, he lets out a sigh of relief, but in his frazzled state from his run-in with Ben he forgets about the last trap, and he forgets about the wire that’s two inches above the ground. He trips over it and lands with a loud thud on the ground. 

A shrill piercing scream fills the air, like nails on a chalkboard but a thousand times worse. Louis immediately covers his ears with his hands, a futile attempt, but it feels as if every fiber of his being is going to rip apart. 

“Ed, it’s just me!” he tries to yell over the blaring alarm. The sound stops almost immediately. Louis uncovers his ears, and shakes his head as if that might get the ringing out of his ear drums. Once he doesn't feel like his head is going to explode, he gets on his hands and knees and starts to crawl through the last few feet of his and Ed’s homemade obstacle course. “Bloody hell, mate, that was fucking brutal. Were you trying to make me fucking ears bleed?”

“Sorry about that mate. If I knew it was you I wouldn’t’ve done it,” Ed explains as Louis gets out of the crawl space and stands up. Ed has the ability to manipulate sound. He can do a lot of things, like make his voice sound like it’s coming from the other side of the room, mimic any person’s voice exactly (they’ve spent many nights laughing until they cried as Ed impersonated celebrities like Morgan Freeman, saying inappropriate things) or he can let out inhuman noises that can do some serious damage. “That's the first time either of us hasn’t missed any of the traps, had to be safe. What's wrong? You look like shit.” Louis makes a beeline for his knapsack he has ready to go in case of emergencies. It’s filled with a few extra sets of clothes, his iPod, and a couple of pictures of his family.

“That fuckwad Ben nearly got me today. I gotta skip town. The knobhead hates me and won’t stop searching all of London ‘til he finds me.” Louis grabs a shirt he accidentally left out, quickly stuffs it in the bag, and slings it over his shoulder. 

“He hates every mutant. Don’t go thinking you're all special,” Ed jokes. “What happened anyway?” Louis quickly explains it to him, knowing the faster he tells the story the sooner he’ll be out of London and on the way to somewhere relatively more safe than here. Ed lets out a whistle after Louis finishes his tale. “If that guy hadn’t’ve helped you, you’d be on your way to The Mill right now.”

“You don’t think I fucking know that?” Louis shouts angrily. “Sorry, I’m not mad at you. I just have to go like, right fucking now.” He heads towards the front entrance of the building. He doesn’t need to use the crawl space. He’s not afraid of anyone seeing him leave the building knowing he’ll never ever return to it. 

“Then I’ll go with you.” Ed stands up and reaches for his packed bag.

Louis stops and turns around to face Ed. “As much as I want you to, I don't think it’s a good idea. You know as well as I do that Ben is cunning, and he has to know that we’re hiding together by now. I say we split up now and make it on our own to the mutant base up North.” 

The mutant base camp is the only shining light for mutants on the run. It’s meant to be a sanctuary for people with abilities. Rumor has it, it’s an underground organization that has one goal: save all mutants. It is a safe place, but you also have to be ready to do your part if necessary, and since mutants were being hunted like animals, any chance to take a stand was a victory in most people's books. Louis isn’t really one of those people. Running in a group of mutants is risky nowadays, and it’s one he does not want to take, but if going there means a place that he could call home, or something close to it, then he’ll deal with it. 

“But that’s just a rumor!” Ed protests. “Nobody I’ve talked to knows if it actually exists or not. Or even where it might be.”

“I heard today that it’s near Norwich,” Louis whispers, paranoid that someone might hear. “I had to give up my Game Boy for that information, and prove I was a mutant. It’s legit. There’s a bar in Manchester called The Temple, near the Gay Village. You go there and they can help you to the mutant base camp. Trust me on this.”

“I don’t know...” Ed scratches the back of his neck. 

“Let’s say we meet up at The Temple tomorrow and then we go to the mutant camp together.” Just then a loud creaking sound fills the air. Louis jumps, despite knowing that it’s just the building slowly falling apart even more. He just wants to get the fuck out of town, like yesterday. 

“Since when is splitting up ever a good idea?!” Ed throws up his arms in frustration. 

“We’ll only draw more attention to ourselves if we’re together,” Louis replies, clenching his fists. He considers throwing up a wall of complete darkness and bolting, but he considers Ed his friend and can’t bring himself to be that much of a dick.

“I still don’t think-” Ed tries once more. 

“I’m getting the fuck out of London now,” Louis cuts him off. He really doesn’t have a second to spare. He understands Ben’s tactics well enough at this point to know there’s a very good chance he has already called backup to keep an eye on all the train stations and nearby Tube stops. He likes Ed, he really does, but if he’s learned anything being on the run, it’s that sticking together means you’re more likely to get caught. That’s something he discovered the hard way, and he can’t be the reason another mutant gets hauled away to prison. “Look, I’ve been doing this longer than you, and it makes no sense to stay together. It really isn’t a good idea. I’ve done the whole ragtag team thing once before and it ended really badly.”

“What happened?” Ed asks, sitting down on an upside-down crate. 

“Long story short, I was traveling with a couple other mutants for about two months, and eventually Ben caught up to us. They’re in one of the mutant prisons now, or worse. I prefer to travel alone so I can’t be held responsible for anyone getting caught.” Louis sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “You’re great, man. I just...”

Ed stands up and claps a hand on Louis’ shoulder. “You don’t have to say anything else. Let’s meet up at the bar on Thursday; that gives us three days just in case.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Louis shakes his head to try to clear his thoughts, now is not the time to be thinking of past failures. “See you in Manchester.”

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” Ed jokes. Louis returns the smile, pushing down the emotions that threaten to boil over. He gives Ed a quick one-armed hug before going out the front, no longer scared of giving away their hideout. The second Louis steps outside the decrepit building he puts up his invisibility projection and heads to the nearest Tube station. 

The invisibility thing has become like second nature for him, he uses it nearly every day to get around. He barely even has to think about it anymore and he can keep it up for a bit more than thirty minutes if he really tries. When he first discovered his abilities, it took all of his attention and focus for any sort of image to stay up for more than a few seconds. He remembers hiding in his room and honing his abilities. He spent hours trying to project images of silly things like flowers, posters, and his favorite celebrities. They all had a sort of pixelated look to them, like some sort of crappy hologram, and would flicker out of existence in a matter of seconds. It took him weeks of practice just to get an image to stay up for ten seconds. It was a few months after he discovered his powers that he left home and never looked back. He misses his family terribly, but it’s best for them if he isn’t around. He certainly can’t go back with a target on him; he’ll be gone until this stupid mutant hatred thing stops. Which might never happen, so he’s resigned himself to never seeing his family again and it breaks his heart. He wonders if they miss him as much as he misses them. 

_No more distractions,_ he thinks to himself. _Don’t get stuck in the past._ He takes a quick moment to pause and collect himself. The Tube station is in sight now and he can’t fuck up like he did earlier today. He can’t risk letting his guard down again. He checks to make sure his invisibility shield has still held up despite his wayward thoughts, makes sure he can still feel it in the back of his mind; he does. He watches the people as they go into the Tube station, none of them are paying any attention to him, or look like they might be Sentinel Service agents. He lets out a sigh of relief and starts down the stairs. It’s even busier than outside. There’s always a long queue for the kiosks and everyone funneling through the turnstiles one at a time. Louis spots one of the empty exit turnstiles and makes a beeline for it. He jumps over the barrier with ease, and nobody starts chasing him so he counts that as a win. Once he gets further away from the entrance, and finds himself surrounded by yet another sea of people he lets his shield drop. Nobody seems to react, nobody is screaming “Mutie!” at the top of their lungs and causing a riot so he counts that as another win. Yet another invaluable thing Louis has learned being on the run, the little things are what really counts; just making it through an entire day feels like winning a gold medal. 

Louis keeps his head down as he moves with the flow of people, he knows exactly which way he needs to go to get to the Piccadilly Line headed towards King’s Cross, then hops on the Northern Line to get to the Euston train station. Once he gets to Euston he can figure out the schedule for trains going to Manchester. 

Waiting on the platform kicks his paranoia to another level. Even something as simple as someone taking their phone out of their pocket feels like some sort of threat. He doesn’t like standing out in the open for too long even if it is only a couple of minutes. 

He taps his foot on the tiled floor impatiently, and can’t help himself from looking up at the sign saying how many minutes until another train arrives. Two minutes. He wills the time to somehow go faster, every minute he stands still is another minute Ben gets closer to finding him. 

The train arrives on time, but the short wait seemed like an eternity for Louis. He power walks towards the nearest door. The cabin is fairly empty, a double-edged sword for mutants. Sure, fewer people are there to witness you but it also makes it a thousand times easier for a Sentinel Service agent to find you. Louis takes one of the seats towards the end of the cabin, so he won’t be looking directly out a window for someone to potentially see him when they pull into stops. 

Louis slumps down in his seat and pulls his hood over his face. He only has five stops before he needs to switch lines. Despite the fact that he’s no longer at a complete standstill, the voice in his head urging him to throw up a mirage and run, is clear as a fucking bell even though, a) he has nowhere to run, and b) doing so would cause a scene and get him arrested for sure. The voice is just another unfortunate side-effect of being on the run for so long. He keeps his eyes trained on the floor, bounces his leg up and down nervously, and fiddles his hands distractedly. He stays like that until his stop and he’s out of his seat the second the doors open and makes his way to the Northern line. He arrives at Euston station with no problem. 

Getting onto a train is a whole different matter entirely. Essentially it’s the same as getting into the Tube, only train stations have Sentinel Service agents sniffing around at all times. Something that can only be more of an issue since Louis’ run-in with Ben earlier today. Louis stops in the middle of the crowd, looking up at the huge signs telling passengers the most recent train schedule updates. Luckily, there’s a train leaving for Manchester in twenty minutes from Platform 8. He quickly moves to a wall, standing in the middle of a crowded place, especially a train station like this, is dangerous. 

From his new spot against the wall he can properly observe the entrance to the platforms. Just like the Tube station, there’s a steady stream of people scanning their tickets to get to the platforms. Louis walks down to the designated exit turnstiles to see if they would be an option, but there’s a small crowd of people shuffling through those as well. He has to get over the turnstiles somehow. He continues to scan for a gap large enough for him to jump over without bumping into someone and giving himself away in the process, but it’s nonexistent. His eyes land on the handicap entrance and he kicks himself internally for not seeing it before. There’s an employee standing behind it, but he’s leaning against the wall attempting to look attentive, but coming across as bored. Louis puts up his invisibility projection and walks towards the turnstile. He tries not to get in the way of people and hopes that they won’t question someone bumping into them in a crowded train station. Nobody seems to mind or notice him, as he makes it to the turnstile quickly. When he’s a few feet away he runs at the turnstile. He grabs onto the top bar and hurls himself over it quickly. He lands easily, and nobody yells at him. He seamlessly joins the crowd of people on the platform walking towards their cabins. He keeps himself invisible because there aren’t as many people and it would probably be a bit more obvious if he just appeared considering that train platforms are probably the one place where people don’t have their noses in their phones. 

Louis makes sure he’s getting onto to the right train before getting into one of the coach cabins. He slumps down in a seat that isn’t reserved. He feels like he’s run a marathon today; all he wants to do is sleep. But doing so would mean he’d have to let his guard down and he can’t afford to do that. Fuck. He hates being on the run, stupid mutant ability fucking up his life. 

Louis discovered his ability a few years ago, while alone in his bedroom; which was probably the best situation for everyone. Even back then, he had heard way too many stories on the news about young kids displaying their powers in public. There’s always some sort of video that surfaces, usually with the child cowering by their parents’ side as people around them yell derogatory things. The news channels never run any follow up stories besides telling the public that they no longer have to worry about the “threat of an out-of-control mutant child.” The way the media portrays mutants makes Louis absolutely sick to his stomach.

Most days he wishes he never got the stupid X-gene. He can project images, there are literally machines that do that. It’s not like he can control minds or shoot fireballs out of his eyes. And yet, people still want him dead. Just because he has a weird gene in his body. Sometimes he wonders if any of his sisters have displayed powers or if the gene comes from his no good father who left when Louis was just ten days old. He hopes for their sakes it came from his dad so they don’t have to live in constant fear 

Louis and his family never had any animosity towards mutants, except for his step-father. Dave was always a bully, probably still is. How his mum ever fell for the dickwad is completely beyond Louis. He was never physically abusive, but the things he said to Louis’ mum sometimes got his blood boiling. Dave was a manly man who wanted his new family to be picture perfect. Whenever news stories about mutants aired, which were most nights, Dave would sit in front of the television yelling at the screen about mutants needing to go home and do the world a favor and kill themselves. Nobody ever had the guts to say anything about his bigoted remarks, his mum pretended as if they never left her husband’s mouth. Louis put up with it because his mum did. He knew that Dave was the main source of income for the family, and if he left then it would be a hell of a lot harder. 

The day Louis discovered his abilities was just like any other, really. He was alone in his room at uni one evening, doing what most young men do with uninterrupted free time. Yup, he was masturbating, with the image of Zac Efron bending him over a desk and taking him from behind at the forefront of his mind. (Sure, he was twenty-one, but Troy Bolton had been a bit of an awakening for him.) It wasn’t until he opened his eyes for a split second that he realized he could see what looked like a movie of what he was imagining only a few feet in front of him. He froze, hand still on his dick, and stared at the silent video in front of him. It disappeared though. He tried for ten minutes to get another, much simpler, image to flash before him, his hard-on completely forgotten. Eventually he got it, it was just an image of a red rose and it disappeared after a second, but still, he wasn’t just hallucinating or something. He spent the next four hours in his room, practicing his newfound ability.

To this day, Louis is still surprised he hadn’t freaked out at all when he found out. There was no identity crisis or any sort of internal struggle to come to terms with it. Maybe because he had already experienced the crisis thing with his sexuality, so accepting the fact that he has the X-gene wasn’t that difficult to process. The only thing that was hard was not telling his mum the second he learned what he could do, but the thought of her telling Dave stopped the idea in its tracks. If he found out, there was no telling what he would have done. Louis knew that Dave would have no problem whatsoever turning Louis in to Sentinel Services. So Louis kept his ability secret from his family and as the days turned into months it became easier to not say anything. It did, however, become much more difficult to sit idly by as Dave made insensitive comments about mutants. Louis hated to hear Dave cursing out the mutants on the news, and those were people he didn’t even know. Louis’ step-father also had strong feelings about gay people

The day Louis decided to leave his whole life behind was one of the most painful days he’s ever experienced. He didn't want to leave his family alone with Dave, but Dave is also an abusive asshole who hates mutants so really it was for the best if Louis left the entirety of his life behind to keep them safe.

He decided to leave without warning so his mum wouldn't convince him to stay, because he knew she would try and he would agree. He packed his knapsack one Saturday morning, and took a train home to surprise his mum and siblings. He spent the day playing footy in the backyard with his siblings and helping his mum cook lunch and dinner. He wanted to leave them with the best possible memories of him. When the younger ones had to go to bed he tucked them in, despite their protests of being too old. Then he went downstairs and spent the next two hours talking with his mum about everything under the sun. Before she went upstairs for the night, he hugged her tightly, trying to put everything he wanted to say but couldn’t into that one gesture. He waited another thirty minutes in the living room to make sure everyone was asleep, at least that’s what he told himself. 

That was nearly eight months ago and Manchester is the closest he’s dared to get to Doncaster. If he went back, he’s not sure he could muster up the willpower to leave.

“The train will arrive at Manchester in ten minutes.” 

The automated voice effectively pulls Louis out of his thoughts. He hadn’t meant to zone out for quite so long. 

As soon as the train pulls into the station Louis grabs his knapsack and quickly gets off of it. His first order of business is to find The Temple. The person who told him about the bar’s existence said it was near Canal St, a few blocks south from where all the gay bars are. Luckily, there are maps all around the city centre telling him where to go. 

\---

Nearly an hour later Louis finally finds the bar. The train station is quite far from his final destination, not to mention he got totally fucking lost about five times and had to retrace his steps in the labyrinth of Manchester streets. 

As soon as Louis sees The Temple he can tell it’s not exactly a regular bar. There’s a white awning covering part of a median between two one-way roads. It says The Temple in intricate text and an arrow pointing down. Louis looks down the stairway cautiously. Every cell in his body is yelling at him to turn the fuck around because an underground bar that just so happens to be called The Temple, as in a type of sanctuary, just screams trap. Despite his gut and brain telling him to run away, he goes down the stairs. 

He pauses at the bottom of the stairs and takes a deep breath before opening the door. 

And.. it looks like an ordinary bar. It’s narrow and dingey. There are a long benches that serve as the seats on the both sides of the space and there are tables packed close together so as to fit as many people into the small space as possible. Louis isn’t sure what he was expecting, maybe he thought there would be a bunch of mutants with abnormally colored skin or wings sprouting from their backs, but that would be way to obvious. The few men and women that are in the bar don’t even react to Louis entering. Their attention is solely reserved for their drinks.  
Louis takes a seat at the bar. The man behind it looks to be a few years older than him. He’s tall and lanky, and his hair is styled in a high quiff. 

“What can I get for ya, mate?” the man says with a huge grin, throwing a dishrag over his shoulder. 

“Friend of mine told me to try the Ghost cocktail here,” Louis says pointedly. “Says it’ll knock me on my ass.” 

The smile falls off of the man’s face almost immediately and he looks down at the bartop. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“I think you do,” Louis pushes. He can’t have come all the way to Manchester with the hope of the mutant camp only for it to just be a fucking pipe dream after all. 

The man leans in, so he’s only a few inches away from Louis. “Look I don’t know what exactly your friend told you, but I can’t help you,” the man denies. 

“Do you need proof that I’m not from Sent-”

“Stop talking.” The man grabs Louis’ shirt with one hand. Louis puts both of his hands up in surrender. 

“Whoa settle down mate!”

“Who sent you?” The man’s grip tightens, and lifts Louis up from the chair, starting to cut off Louis’ air little by little. Apparently this guy has super strength.

“Some guy from London,” he chokes out. “His name was Georgie or summat. Said to ask for a ‘Ghost’ cocktail! I want to get to Norwich!” Louis tries to get the man to loosen his grip, but fails. 

“Why should I trust you?” The man’s eyes become slits. 

Louis conjures the image of a grassy field full of blooming roses, tulips, peonies, any flower he can think of, and in every color in the rainbow. He projects the image between the two of them. The man loosens his grip as he sets Louis back down on his chair.

“Was that really fucking necessary?” Louis gasps as he rubs his neck. 

“Sorry, mate. I had to be sure you weren’t Sentinel Services. Had a few come in last week. What’s your poison? First drink’s on me, least I can do for choking you.”

“Since you’re offering, a Long Island Iced Tea. Top shelf.” 

“Coming right up.” The man grabs a glass from a shelf behind him and starts mixing Louis’ drink. “Name’s Nick by the way.”

Louis hesitates for the briefest moment before responding. “Louis.”

“So you want to get to the base camp?”

“If everything I’ve heard about it is true. Then yes. Hell even if it’s not, I’ll still go. I just want to stop running, ya know?” Nick sets the cocktail in front of Louis. Louis takes a big gulp. 

“I do know, unfortunately. Most of our kind want to stop running.” 

“So what do I need to do to get there?” Louis asks, trying not to sound desperate. (He’s not really sure it worked.) 

“When do you want to go?” 

“Tomorrow. A friend of mine should be here by then.”

“I’ll see what I can get set up. Come in tomorrow around noon and we’ll see what’s what.”

“I can do that.” Louis nods and takes another drink. “Know of anything fun to do in under 24 hours?”

\---

After leaving The Temple, Louis checks in to the hostel Nick told him about. Apparently it’s mutant friendly. He doesn’t quite understand how they can enforce that kind of thing, but he has entrusted NIck with his life so he figures he might as well trust the man with this as well. The address is only about half a mile away, but Louis had Nick draw a map on a napkin so that he wouldn’t get lost in the streets of Manchester for another hour. He used to love just wandering aimlessly around the city, used to do it all the time with his mates in Doncaster, but he hasn’t been able to do that for months now. 

Once his knapsack is stored safely in the locker by his bunk, Louis lies down on the thin lumpy mattress and closes his eyes, telling himself that he’ll just rest for a minute. 

 

\---

 

The sound of people laughing jolts Louis awake a few hours later. He makes himself invisible without even thinking. The projection is only up for a split second before he remembers he’s safe, but he still keeps it up while he figures out what’s happening. There are three people who look to be about the same age as Louis in the room; two girls and one guy, they haven’t seemed to notice Louis yet. They seem comfortable with each other, like they’re just normal people, which is something he hasn’t seen amongst mutants for a long, long time. He brings down the projection and awkwardly gets out from the bunk to stretch.

“Well look who’s finally up. We all thought you might’ve been dead if it wasn’t for your snoring,” the boy comments. So they did notice him. 

“Knock it off, Niall,” the blonde girl admonishes as she hits his arm. “Don’t mind him, doesn't have any bloody manners. I’m Perrie.” She holds out her hand. 

“Louis,” he replies and shakes her offered hand.

“There’s no need to be scared. You’re safe here,” Perrie assures him. A strange sense of calm washes over Louis. His shoulders relax and he can feel his heartbeat slow down. He hasn't felt this relaxed in years. The tiny part of his brain that’s constantly telling him he needs to be on high alert at all times is silent for once. He’s not worried about watching his back or about Ben or being caught and tortured in a government lab. It’s like all of his cares disappeared just like that. 

“Whoa,” Louis says. 

“I’m an empath,” Perrie explains. “Can feel what people feel, make them feel certain things. You were just stressed and anxious. I figured you could use a little calm in your life. I hope you don’t mind.” 

“No, not all. It feels good. How long does it last?”

“Not that long,” Perrie shrugs. “But once you get some alcohol in your system I’m sure it’ll have roughly the same effect.”

 

\----

 

Less than an hour later Louis is on the crowded dance floor of a club with his new friends Niall, Perrie and Jade. He’s already had four shots and two beers. Niall challenged Louis to keep up with him, and Louis is competitive as fuck so he couldn’t back down. He can feel the music pulsing through his body and he revels in the feeling. He hasn’t even thought about Ben or the fact that he’s on the run. He’s just enjoying the night with his new mates. Perrie was right, he needed to fucking relax. 

“Enjoying yourself?” Perrie yells over the music.

“Definitely! I’m so glad we’re mates!” Louis smiles, like genuinely smiles at her. Yet another thing that he hasn’t done in ages. It might be the influence of the alcohol, or maybe Perrie’s powers last longer than she said. 

“Me too!” Perrie stops dancing and pulls Louis in for a hug. Louis wraps his arms around her. The hug lasts for maybe five seconds, but Louis feels like he could get used to having a group friends again. He’s traveled on his own for so long, maybe it’s time to put the past behind him and actually make connections with people. 

“I’m gonna go to the loo!” Louis yells and points in the general direction of the toilets.

Perrie gives him a thumbs up and starts dancing again. 

Louis makes his way through the crowd, trying to be polite but pushing a couple of people out of the way because they are completely oblivious to their surroundings. Once he’s out of the crowd the air feels lighter somehow. The rest of the journey to the loo is easy, the area around the dance floor is much less crowded. He pushes open the door, only for it to collide with something solid. 

“Ow!”

“Oh my god I’m so sorry! Are you ok?”

The man stops rubbing his forehead and gets a good look at Louis. “There’s no blood so it’s all good. Plus I have a high tolerance for pain.” The man winks. 

Louis wants to laughs but he’s transfixed by the man before him. He looks absolutely gorgeous. 

“Uh sorry that was a bad joke,” the boy says sheepishly as he rubs the back of this neck. 

“It was. I uhm just...“ Louis frantically thinks of something witty to say. _I just want you to fuck me in this dirty club bathroom, right now?_ “I’m just really drunk and have forgotten how to act like a human in front of a really fit guy.” _Real subtle.._

The boy throws his head back and laughs. “Maybe you could offer to buy me a drink?”

“Yeah. I’ll do that. I’m gonna buy you a drink and maybe we can get to know each other. I’m Louis, by the way.”

“Harry,” the boy replies with a grin. 

 

\---

 

“And the next thing I know it’s spurting out of my nose!”

Louis is doubled over the bar laughing so hard no sound comes out. 

“Hey, Don’t laugh at my pain!” Harry protests, which a small grin on his face. 

Louis wipes away tears from the corner of his eye. “I’m sorry but that’s absolutely hilarious.”

“You wouldn’t think it was funny if it was you.”

“That’s probably true.” Louis takes a sip of his previously forgotten drink. Harry had been telling a story for the past ten minutes and Louis had been so transfixed by the way the curly haired boy speaks and gesticulates that the rest of the world just seemed to disappear. 

They lock eyes and fall into a comfortable silence, the music still thumping in the background. They’ve been talking for thirty minutes at the bar. In that time Louis has learned that Harry is nineteen, almost twenty, and in his second year of University and is studying psychology. He’s also learned that Harry is from Holmes Chapel and his best friends are his mum, sister, and cat named Petunia. There’s something about Harry that makes Louis feel like he can really trust him even though they’re basically strangers; he’s felt that way a lot in the past day. 

Harry plays with the straw in his drink as he asks, “Do you wanna come back to my place?” 

Louis feels relaxed enough with Harry that he doesn’t hesitate to reply, “Yeah. I just need to tell me mates that I’m leaving. Meet outside in five?” Harry gives Louis a dejected look, making him look like a kicked puppy. Louis leans in and kisses Harry gently on the lips. He pulls back and looks into Harry’s eyes. “I swear I’ll be out there. Do you trust me?” 

“Yeah,” Harry replies. He glances down at Louis’ lips, pulls Louis in for another kiss by his shirt, his insistent mouth parting Louis’ lips. Every cell in Louis’ body feels like it’s on fire and it’s too much and not enough all at once. He grabs Harry’s waist and pulls the younger boy closer so there’s no space in between them. He keeps one hand on Harry’s waist and moves the other to Harry’s hair. Harry moves one of his hands to Louis’ ass and the other finds its way under Louis’ shirt and up his back. 

Eventually they pull apart, both of them gasping for air. They don’t unwrap themselves from each others arms. 

“Wow,” Louis exhales.

“Yeah,” Harry giggles. 

“I...uhh...mates,” Louis stammers. “Yes, I have to tell me mates I’m leaving to go to your flat and have sex.” He doesn’t move a muscle.

“Mmm,” the boy hums. He starts mouthing at Louis’ neck. Louis tilts his head back without thinking. “You should do that so I can fuck you sooner.”

“I could if you’d..ah..take your hand off my ass and stop doing..ah...that.” Louis squirms in Harry’s arms. 

“Do you really want me to stop?” Harry murmurs in Louis’ ear. 

“No, but like you said, we get to have sex sooner.” 

“You drive a hard bargain.” Harry takes his hand out of Louis' shirt and gives Louis’ ass a quick squeeze before letting go. “So outside in five minutes?” 

“Yup.” Louis turns and walks away before Harry touches him again, knowing he wouldn’t be able to resist anything from the curly haired boy. 

He wades back into the crowd on the dance floor and heads to the spot where he left his new mates. They aren’t there, he wasn’t totally expecting them to be right where he left them, but he had hoped. He decides to check out the smoking area, looking around for his friends as he goes. The smoking area is almost as crowded as the club is, but the cold air makes Louis feel so much better. He looks around quickly and spots his new friends huddled in a corner. Niall sees him first and a look of relief washes over his face. He gets Perrie and Jade’s attention and points in Louis’ direction.The two girls look over with matching looks of concern that melt into relief when they see Louis. When Louis finally reaches them Jade slaps his chest. 

“Ow! What’s that for?” Louis rubs his chest, even though it didn’t really hurt that much. 

“We thought you might’ve been nicked by-” Jade looks around quickly and lowers her voice. “Sentinel Services.”

“Yeah, mate. You gotta be careful about shit like that,” Niall chimes in. 

“No! I just met a really fit guy and we hit it off. I’m sorry I didn’t come back! I didn’t think about it! It’s been so long since I’ve traveled in a group...” Louis trails off.

“What happened anyway?” Perrie asks, changing the topic. 

“Oh..uhm, right. Um, yeah. Fit bloke named Harry, really nice, I’m gonna go back to his place for the night.” 

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Perrie asks, the concern obvious on her face. 

“I trust him. I really do. There’s no way he’s an undercover agent.” Louis puts his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, and looks at the ground. Saying it out loud made him realize that maybe going home with a relative stranger isn’t the best idea ever. 

“You don’t sound so sure,” Jade says, crossing her arms. 

Louis takes a second to think through his decision. There’s no way that he can be sure Harry doesn’t work for Sentinel Services. It’s not like he can ask him right out, that would be way too obvious. He’s pretty sure that the government doesn’t recruit uni students to do their dirty work, but of course he can’t be sure. He honestly can’t be sure about anything right now, hasn’t been certain about anything ever since he left home. He wakes up everyday with _“Today could be the day I get caught”_ in the back of his head. Louis’ entire life is uncertainty, but there’s something about Harry that makes Louis certain for once. He can’t explain it, he just has a gut feeling that going home with Harry will be fine and it won’t end with him in a super secret government facility. 

“I trust him,” Louis says confidently. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” His new friends give him more doubtful looks, but he ignores them this time. His gut has gotten him this far in life, so there’s no reason not to listen to it now. He gives a quick hug to all three of them before he heads back inside and towards the exit. 

There aren’t many people hanging outside on the pavement so it’s easy to see that Harry hasn’t made his way out yet, which seems slightly strange. There’s no way he left without Louis, not after that quick and dirty make out session. 

“Could I knick one of your fags by chance?” Louis asks a girl with purple hair who’s wearing black jeans with artfully placed rips and a black leather jacket, and who has a lit cigarette in her hand. 

“Sorry mate. This was my last one.” 

“‘S alright.” Louis crosses his arms over his chest and starts tapping his foot nervously. He doesn’t smoke that often anymore, doesn’t have the funds, but it really helps calm his nerves. 

Someone comes up behind Louis and grabs both of his hips. He practically jumps forward to get away from whoever snuck up on him and he makes himself appear invisible without thinking. 

He turns around to see a startled Harry. 

Shit. Fuck. 

Louis doesn’t know what to do. He’s still invisible. Fuck. The best option would be to run away and forget that he ever met Harry and never come back to Manchester. And the stupidest option would be to tell Harry everything, despite not knowing how Harry feels about mutants. Fuck. Tonight was going so fucking well too. 

Louis decides to show himself. He looks at the ground and takes a deep breath before making himself visible again. 

“So...” Louis says sheepishly, keeping his eyes focused on the cement. When Harry doesn’t say anything, Louis looks up at Harry’s face. 

Harry’s jaw is clenched and his lips are pursed. His eyebrows are furrowed. There’s a fire in his eyes that scares Louis. 

“Harry...” Louis starts. He reaches out to touch Harry in some way. Harry flinches away. 

“Don’t fucking touch me, mutie,” Harry replies through gritted teeth. 

Louis’ heart drops to his stomach. Those words hurt more than any physical blow possibly could. Fuck. Tears start to well up in his eyes. 

“Please, just listen...” 

“Why should I listen to what someone like you has to say?” Harry spits out. He crosses his arms in front of his chest. “Your kind has ruined so much already.”

“Yeah, well it’s because of all of the hate in this world that we’re shamed in the first place!” Louis says louder than he should. He looks around, and notices people starting to watch. 

Harry closes his eyes, uncrosses his arms and clenches his hands at his side. The lightbulb in the streetlight above them shatters. Louis covers his head as glass falls around them. The lights behind them and in front of them do the same. 

What the fuck? Louis thinks.

He looks around frantically for whoever might be responsible for the light bulbs bursting above them. Most of the people around them have their phones out now. Shit. Now he’s going to be on the news, his face is going to be plastered everywhere. He shoots up a quick projection to make his face appear pixellated. Louis doesn’t see anyone that appears to be using powers. 

SCREECH!

The pole only a few feet away from Louis and Harry has started to bend in half. Louis looks at Harry again, and immediately feels like an idiot for not realizing sooner. 

It’s Harry. 

Harry is doing all of this. 

Harry is a mutant. 

The alarms of the cars parked on the street start blaring. Louis takes a couple cautious steps towards Harry. 

“Harry, you need to calm down!” Louis pleads, softly; so the cameras filming don’t pick it up. Harry doesn’t seem to hear him. Louis gets closer. “Please. You need to stop this!” Louis dares to touch Harry’s arm. 

Harry’s eyes fly open, and he lets out a guttural scream. The windows of the cars closest to Harry shatter simultaneously. At that point the people watching finally run away screaming. 

Louis flinches as shards of glass hit his back. He stays where he is. Harry needs him, even if he doesn’t know it. Harry has a terrified look in his eyes. 

“We have to go, Harry. Sentinel Services is bound to be here any second. We can’t be here when they show up.” Louis can hear the distinct sound of police sirens in the distance. “We can’t stay. Please let’s go.”

“Put your hands up!” a woman yells from behind him and Harry. Louis freezes. Shit. He thought they were alone on the street. “I said put your hands up!” Louis does as he’s told, knowing that there’s bound to be a stun gun pointed at his back. “Both of you!” 

“Harry, put your hands up,” Louis murmurs. Harry glances at the woman behind Louis, and then back to Louis, before putting his hands up slowly. 

“Now turn around!” 

Louis complies once again. Behind him is the woman with purple hair, he asked for a fag. She’s holding a stun gun, with both of her arms fully extended. She keeps switching between pointing it at Louis and then at Harry, like she can’t decide who the bigger threat is. 

“Of course you’re an agent,” Louis says to nobody in particular. 

“Stop talking!” she barks. 

“Must be a rookie. Most of you guys tackle us to the ground. But you haven’t.” Louis shrugs, trying to appear like he’s not petrified. 

“Stop talking,” Harry pleads. Louis looks over at Harry, who appears to be even more terrified than when he was using his powers. Louis can’t imagine what Harry must be feeling right now, he’s hated mutants for probably his entire life and literally just discovered that he is a mutant. Normally Louis would feel smug about the turn of events, but the only thing he can feel right now is sorry for Harry. And he can’t help but feel partly responsible for getting him into this mess. Louis doesn’t say anything in response, just nods and gives Harry a smile that he hopes is reassuring. Harry’s expression doesn’t change and he looks back towards the Sentinel Service agent. “We’ll come peacefully. We don’t want to give you any trouble.”

“Speak for yourself,” Louis says under his breath. He makes himself and Harry invisible to the agent. 

“What are you doing?!” Harry yells. The agent looks incredibly confused. She moves around in a half circle pointing the stun gun in the general area of where Louis and Harry are. 

“Be quiet,” Louis hisses. “This is the part where we run.” Harry might have been a dick to Louis, but that doesn’t matter now. Mutants stick together no matter what, and he can’t let Harry do this. 

“No,” Harry replies firmly. “We have to turn ourselves over.” 

“Fuck that. I haven’t been on the run for months only to give myself over to be tortured at The Mill.” 

“The Mill?” 

“There’s so much you don’t know, but now isn’t the time to talk. We have to run.” 

“I’m staying,” Harry says. “And you should too.” 

“You’re on your own then, mate.” Louis drops the half of the invisibility shield that’s protecting Harry and runs down the pavement, away from the agent, away from Harry, away from his problems. 

 

\---

 

“Shit, I’m a terrible person. Aren’t I?” Louis paces back and forth in the dorm room back at the hostel. He should not have left Harry alone to be taken to The Mill. 

After running away from the club, he had gotten lost yet again. Which was probably good. If he didn’t even know where he was, then Sentinel Services couldn’t find him. He ran for a few minutes before stopping to catch his breath. The regret of leaving Harry behind didn’t take long to set in. It was too late go back and change anything though. Even if he wanted to go back and somehow save Harry, he wouldn’t even know how to get back to the club. 

Louis had wandered the streets for forty-five minutes before he saw a vaguely familiar landmark and from there was able to find his way back to the hostel. Niall, Jade, and Perrie were waiting for him in the dorm room when he got back. He frantically explained everything that happened as they stayed silent, taking it in. 

“Yes,” Niall answers from his bunk. 

“That was obviously a rhetorical question,” Jade points out. 

“I couldn’t let myself get taken away! Harry wanted me to turn myself in!” Louis throws his arms up exasperatedly. “We need a plan to save him.” 

“That’s a suicide mission,” Perrie responds. “I haven’t heard of anyone saving someone from that place. It’s a fortress.”

“No shit. But he doesn’t know what really happens there. Like, he genuinely thought that turning himself in was the best option. I don’t know what Kool-Aid he’s been drinking but he thinks Sentinel Service are the good guys.” 

“So let’s say we get on board with this plan,” Niall chimes in. “How the hell would we even do it? There are four of us. We need a bigger team.” 

“The mutant base camp,” Louis replies with a confident smile. 

\--

 

After packing up their few belongings, they arrive at The Temple less than an hour later. Louis goes down the steps two at a time. Bar close is still about an hour away, but they need to get out of Manchester now. 

Louis slams the door open and rushes to the bar, not caring about the possible stares he’s getting from patrons. He makes a beeline for the bar, which is a bit difficult since the place is a lot more crowded than it had been in the middle of the day. 

“We need to go now,” Louis says frantically when he gets to the bartop. Nick is in the middle of preparing a drink and doesn’t pay him any mind. “Fucking hell, Nick!” Louis slams a fist on the bar. 

“I can’t help you mate,” Nick replies, barely glancing at Louis. 

“They’re on our asses, and there’s a good chance they might be following us here,” Perrie lies. 

“Are you fucking serious? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Nick exclaims.

“Can you do it?” Louis asks.

“Give me a second.” Nick turns around and picks up the phone mounted on the wall. He dials a number and mumbles into the receiver for two seconds and then hangs up. “Go to the toilets.” 

“How is that supposed to help us out?” Niall asks. 

“Just go into the men’s toilets. All of you.” Nick replies seriously. 

Louis lets out a huff and rolls his eyes. The four of them turn around and squeeze through the bar again. Perrie is the first to the loo, she stops in front of the door and looks at the others. 

“You guys sure about this?” she asks.

“I’m not sure about anything anymore,” Louis confesses. “For all we know there could be a secret tunnel in there.” 

“Well we won’t know until we check,” Niall adds. “Open it.”

Perrie takes a deep breath before pushing the door open. They enter single file and once they’re in, they huddle in an awkward circle. 

“What now?” Louis questions. The next thing he knows, a man appears out of thin air in the middle of them. They all jump back in surprise. 

“Fucking hell!” Jade screams. 

“Which one of you is Louis?” the man asks. 

“Me,” Louis replies. He might be scared shitless by the sudden appearance of this guy, but now is not the time to give in to fear. 

“Can you vouch for these three?” The man looks at Perrie, Niall and Jade dubiously. 

“Yes.” 

“Okay, then. All of you need to grab onto me,” he holds out his arms with his palms face up. Louis reaches out and takes the stranger’s hand in his own. The other three also grab onto the stranger. “It’ll be a bit of an uncomfortable sensation for you guys,” the man warns before using his power. 

Everything goes black around Louis. He feels like his entire body is being shaped into a ball and at the same time feels like someone is attempting to rip all of his limbs from his body. It’s absolutely excruciating, he doesn’t know how much more he can take. And when he thinks he possibly can’t take any more of the sensation of teleporting, it stops. 

“Bloody hell,” Louis pants. He bends over, putting his hands on his knees as he takes deep breaths, willing himself not to puke. “You could’ve given us a bit more warning, mate.” He glance around to see his friends in similar positions around the empty clearing. He spots Niall with his head in some bushes. 

“There’s not really any good way to prepare people for the sensation of it,” the man replies, clearly unaffected. “I’m Liam by the way. Welcome to base camp.”

“I think I need another drink after that, you have any booze here?” Niall asks from his spot near the bushes. 

“I agree with the Irishman,” Perrie chimes in. 

“Once you all get your bearings we can go to the house and see what we have,” Liam chuckles. 

It’s another five minutes before any of them feel like they can actually walk to the house, which is like fifty yards away. Louis’ legs feel like jelly and he still feels like he could vomit at any moment. Louis doesn’t understand why Liam couldn’t have just teleported them into the house, but whatever. 

Once they’re all finally able to stand up straight without any trouble, they walk towards the large house in the clearing that he hadn’t noticed when he was hunched over. As soon as Louis lays eyes on it, he realizes that it’s the old school for mutants. It’s a three story brick building, with a vast amount of windows lining each story. There’s ivy covering all of the brick on the first floor. It still appears to be in good shape, but there is a large chunk missing from the third floor. It looks like some sort of monster took a bite out of the corner of the building, exposing the third floor and some of the second to the elements. 

“The secret mutant base camp is the old X-mansion?” Louis asks incredulously. “Doesn’t that seem a bit too obvious?”

“Well, it was abandoned after the X-men went missing. And then there were some squatters for a while, of course. Sentinel Services cracked down on them and shipped them off to The Mill. After that, I guess the government didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to be here, so they haven’t bothered to check.” Liam explains. 

“That seems quite stupid of them,” Jade comments.

“Well, the thing about non-mutants is they think they’re smarter than us, and the defenses they left behind aren’t here anymore, and they’re none the wiser.”

The inside of the building looks like it has been through more than the outside. There’s graffiti covering the worn walls of the entryway. The main staircase has collapsed in on itself in the middle, making it useless. To the left is what appears to be a gathering space. There are worn, mismatched armchairs scattered around the room. There’s even a television in one corner that looks like it’s from the 80’s and hasn’t been touched in at least a decade. The room to the right is empty and the walls are covered in graffiti as well. 

“So how many people are here?” Perrie asks. Liam leads them past the main staircase into a hallway lined with doors on each side. 

“About thirty or so. Most of them are our age. A few are younger. We’ve got a couple families.”

“I thought there would be a lot more than that,” Louis chimes in. 

“Well, we can definitely hold more people, but it’s not as if we can advertise where we are,” Liam explains as he leads them up a flight of stairs, and down another hallway lined with doors. “If people hear about us and get to one of our bars scattered around the country, then we take them in.” Liam stops in front of a door in the middle of the hallway. “You guys can stay in here for tonight. I’m sure all of you are exhausted by now.” Liam turns on the light. It’s small and pretty bare apart from one full bed and a bunk bed. 

“You can say that again,” Niall says, rushing into the room. “I get bottom bunk!” 

“You got it last time,” Jade complains as she follows him with Perrie close behind.

“I’ve got a janky knee so I can’t be on top.” Niall plops down the bottom bunk and puts his hands behind his head. “Also I don’t really feel like sharing a bed.”

“I’ll take top,” Louis says from the hallway. He turns his attention to Liam. “Can you help us break into The Mill?”

“Do you have a death wish?” Liam asks incredulously. 

“Long story short, a guy named Harry turned himself into Sentinel Services tonight and he didn’t fully understand the consequences of that.”

“How?!” 

“He hates mutants and didn’t know he was one of us. So he believed all the propaganda the government puts out.”

“Damn,” Liam marveled. “Let’s talk about it in the morning, okay? Everyone’s asleep and you look like you could use some yourself.”

“Alright,” Louis concedes. There’s no point in arguing with someone who just saved their asses in the blink of an eye. “Thank you, by the way.”

“Don’t mention it. Our kind has to look out for one another,” Liam says. “Goodnight, Louis.”

“Night, Liam.” 

Louis watches Liam walk back down towards the stairs for a few seconds before entering the room he’s staying in tonight with his new group of friends. 

“I thought I was on the top bunk?” Louis questions when he sees Jade lying there. 

“Perrie is a bit of a kicker,” Jade responds. 

“Not when I’m this exhausted,” Perrie retorts. 

“I don’t really care to be honest. I haven’t slept in a proper bed in ages, so this is like Buckingham Palace. Fair warning I do snore.” Louis takes off his hoodie and jeans and gets under the blanket with Perrie. 

“Niall, get the light,” Perrie says. Niall doesn’t move a muscle and the light above them goes out. 

“Woah. That’s cool,” Louis says in amazement. “You control electricity?” 

“Technology in general. If it has circuits, I can hack it,” Niall replies. 

“That’s awesome. What can you do Jade?”

“I can manipulate metal.”

“Man, you guys have some cool powers,” Louis says wistfully. 

“So is your power just invisibility?” Perrie asks. “I saw you appear and disappear at the hostel when you woke up.”

Louis doesn’t say anything, just thinks about what the night sky looked like from his backyard in Doncaster and projects it onto the ceiling.

“Shit,” Niall breathes out softly. Louis adds a full moon to the image. “Mate you definitely have the coolest power out of all of us.” 

“If you say so,” Louis murmurs. His eyelids are closing against his will, the last few hours of the day have finally caught up with him. All of the adrenaline from the run-in with the Sentinel Service agent and Harry has finally left his system. His body feels heavy, like it’s being weighed down by all the stress of the day. One second he’s looking at the familiar night sky and the next is completely dark. 

 

\---

 

Louis jolts awake in the morning with adrenaline flooding his system. The room is still dark and nobody else is awake. He quietly gets out of bed and peeks behind the curtain to see that the sun isn’t even fully up yet. He didn’t have a bad dream, not that he can remember anyway. And there’s clearly no sort of threat judging by how quiet the mansion is. The most likely reason he woke up scared for absolutely no reason is because he’s just not used to sleeping for more than four hours uninterrupted. The last time he slept a full eight hours was well before he left his family behind. When he was a teenager, he would try to sleep until noon every Saturday, but his plans were usually thwarted by his mum with whatever chores she had for him that weekend. For months he’s been moving from city to city and having to constantly look over his shoulder, constantly worried that sleeping for too long would leave him totally vulnerable. So he’s learned to cope with less sleep than he used to need. 

Louis decides to wander around the mansion for a little bit. Once he’s awake there’s no way for him to fall back asleep anymore. This gives him a great opportunity to get a lay of the land. He quickly pulls on his jeans and hoodie. He looks around the room. All of his friends are sleeping peacefully. Perrie has already flopped onto her back in the middle of the mattress, effectively taking up the entire space. 

Louis opens the door quietly and shuts it behind him. He goes towards the staircase, assuming all of the rooms on this floor are bedrooms. He doesn’t want to wake anyone up. Despite the mansion being a bit older, the floorboards don’t creak at all, which is perfect for early morning sneaking around. At the bottom of the stairs he takes a left. More doors on this floor are open, and he takes the opportunity to peek into them. Most of them are old classrooms lined with desks and chalk boards in the front. There are even a few offices. 

As he explores, Louis can’t help but imagine what this place was like when there were students here. He imagines Professor X sitting behind a large wooden desk, disciplining a student or doing paperwork. He imagines kids of all ages running up and down the halls without a care in the world. He imagines himself going here, making mutant friends, learning how to hone his powers from Wolverine or Beast. He imagines a world where the X-Men never disappeared and he wasn’t on the run, a world where he was relatively normal. 

“We can’t help them,” a voice says from a room down the hall. Louis doesn’t recognize the voice, which isn’t surprising since the only person he’s met so far is Liam. But “them” is probably himself and his friends. Louis has never been able to resist the temptation to eavesdrop on something that will affect him, so he moves closer to where the voice is coming from. 

“We have to,” Liam replies. 

“It’s way too risky,” the first voice replies. Louis approaches the open door and makes himself invisible before peeking his head into the room. It’s one of the old classrooms. Liam is standing between two rows of desks. There’s a guy with jet black hair and two full sleeves of tattoos sitting on a desk facing Louis. There’s a young Black woman with natural curly hair facing Louis as well. A brunette is sitting on a desk facing away from Louis. 

“So you just want to leave a bunch of mutants in The Mill?” the brunette asks. 

“No, Jesy. I don’t want to, but I’m just thinking about what this could mean for our team.” 

“Zayn has a fair point,” the curly haired woman adds. “We don’t have that many fighters here.”

“People are more than willing to help, Leigh-Anne. Practically all of them have said so,” Liam argues. “Plus breaking them out of there would only add to our numbers.”

“It’s not safe,” Zayn emphasizes. 

“Nothing is safe anymore!” Liam raises his voice and throws his arms up in the air in frustration. “Our kind are being hunted and tortured, and you just want to do nothing?”

Silence fills the air. Leigh-Anne looks around the room. Her eyes land on Louis. Louis’ heart begins to race. She is clearly looking directly at him, and not through him like Louis is used to when he has a projection up. 

Leigh-Anne jumps up from the desk. She plants her feet and brings her fists up like she’s ready to fight. “Show yourself!” she says loudly. Fuck. Louis freezes. Nobody has ever been able to see through his projections before. His body is telling him to run, but he reminds himself that he’s safe here

“Stand down, Leigh-Anne. This is Louis, the one I was telling you about,” Liam says. 

“Uh.. hi” Louis does a little finger wave. “Sorry about that. I’m a very curious person.”

“So you’re the one who wants us to stick our necks out for you even though we don’t know a single thing about you,” Zayn says dubiously. 

“I just want to save him okay? It’s my fault he’s in there.” 

“Is he a friend of yours?” Zayn asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Not really. I met him a club, but-” 

“Oh great, so we’re supposed to save a bigoted stranger!” Zayn throws his arms up in frustration.

“He didn’t know he was one of us. He didn’t even know what the fuck actually happens in The Mill!” Louis shouts. He takes a few steps towards Zayn. “I may not know him that well, but nobody deserves to be tortured. Why is it that you won’t help?” 

“Because it’s risky,” Zayn repeats as he crosses his arms. 

Louis rolls his eyes. “That’s just an excuse. I should know because I’ve been telling myself that for a long time.” Louis takes a few more steps toward Zayn. “You’re scared.”

“Of course I am!” Zayn confesses loudly. “I’ve lost most of my family in the past year. I have one sister who’s alive and she always goes on rescue missions no matter what I say.” 

“News flash! We’ve all lost people in this goddamn war. That’s what this is, a war on mutants. I’ve lost people too. I prefer not to do stupid shit like this, but I’m responsible for him being in there. We are the only hope the mutants in The Mill have.” 

The room falls silent. Everyone is staring at Louis. His face is red and his breath is coming out in huffs. Louis stares at Zayn. Louis is not going to budge on this. Zayn keeps his eyes trained on the floor. Liam, Jesy, and Leigh-Anne are looking between Louis and Zayn, not wanting to get in the middle of this fight. 

“They’re right, Zayn,” Leigh-Anne says eventually.

“I know,” Zayn sighs. He drags a hand down his face. “If we’re going to do this we need a foolproof plan. So any ideas?” 

\---

“If we do that, the cameras will definitely see us,” Zayn points out. 

“We’ll be invisible!” Louis retorts. 

Planning a rescue mission is a lot more difficult than Louis thought it would be. He and the others have been at the mansion for a week and they still haven’t come up with a plan that is up to Zayn’s standards. Louis thinks there’s a chance Zayn might be vetoing the plans on purpose. No plan is going to be absolutely perfect, not when a ragtag team of mutants goes up against one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the country. Not to mention the fact that it’s literally designed to be mutant-proof. 

Zayn wants to keep the mission as small as possible, so even though there are a dozen people lined up, ready to do anything to help the mission, he won’t let them. Louis has taken control of most of the planning. He’s been holed up in one of the classrooms on the first floor with Liam and a rotation of his friends as well as Leigh-Anne and Jesy. Even though Zayn acquiesced to breaking into The Mill, he still wants as little to do with planning as possible. Apart from saying no to even the most elaborate plans, Zayn does not sit in the room contributing any helpful ideas. 

Louis still doesn’t know why Zayn seems to be in charge of basically everything around the mansion. It seems like any big decision has to be run by him and he has the ultimate choice in whatever the group does. Louis has been too afraid to ask why they don’t all have equal say in important matters like this. If that were the case, he wouldn’t be pitching the twelfth plan they’ve come up with this week, while everyone sits around watching them argue. 

Right now Louis and Zayn are standing on opposite sides of the old wooden teacher’s desk with a blueprint of The Mill discussing the plan. Everyone else is sitting scattered around the room on top of the desks. They learned early on in the week that it’s best to let Louis and Zayn talk without crowding around them It’s a miracle they even have the blueprint. Without it they would have been going in blind. Niall was able to hack into Sentinel Service’s system and download all of the necessary information. Louis had been dubious about Niall actually being able to hack into government computers, but apparently they don’t feel the need to make all of their tech mutant-proof. 

“Have you accounted for-” Zayn starts.

‘Yes,” Louis responds exasperatedly.

“You didn’t even know what I was going to say.”

“We’ve accounted for practically every single thing that could possibly go wrong,” Louis says for about the billionth time that day. “If we bring Aiden along, he should be able to make our luck just a bit better.”

“Just because he can manipulate probabilities doesn’t mean he can ensure we save everyone. And what about just having Liam teleport here?” Zayn points at a hallway on the map.

“Even with Niall taking out the power that still leaves four guards in that hallway alone, and Liam would be dead in about five seconds flat,” Louis explains calmly, crossing his arms over his chest. 

Zayn leans over the desk, with both of his arms supporting him. His eyebrows are furrowed in concentration and he’s biting his lower lip. Louis sends a silent prayer to whichever god might be listening, to make Zayn agree to this plan. 

“Okay,” Zayn sighs. 

“Is that a good or bad ‘okay’?” Louis asks. 

“Good. This plan is good.” A sigh of relief fills the room. 

“Thank fuck!” Niall exclaims, jumping up from his seat. “I never thought you’d say yes.” 

There’s a murmur of agreement throughout the room. Everyone gets up from their seats and join Louis and Zayn at the desk

“I was just being thorough,” Zayn says seriously.

“I thought the X-men were going to come back before you pulled the trigger,” Niall jokes loudly. Louis slaps the back of Niall’s head. “What was that for?!?” Louis doesn’t say anything in reply just gives Niall a pointed look that says, “You know why.”

“Okay the easy part is done. Now we have to actually pull it off,” Louis says to everyone with a huge grin.

\---

The rest of the day there’s a weird energy around the mansion, they aren’t hitting The Mill until midnight which is when one group of guards is off and another group starts their day. This will give them a small window of opportunity, they hope so anyway. 

Everyone figured out the plan less than an hour after it was decided on, and it’s sent them all into a tizzy. It only serves to make Louis feel even more anxious, so he’s avoiding everyone. Which is why he is now sitting on the edge of a floor in the corner of the mansion that’s destroyed. (Louis has learned that it was destroyed by a mutant’s energy blast and that people rarely come up here). His feet are dangling over the edge as he watches a group of people train in the clearing. One of them blasts a dummy with some sort of blue burst of energy from their hands. He thinks about joining them for a brief second, but he doesn’t move from his spot. 

Louis knows that attempting to save Harry and the other mutants in that building is dumb. And really Louis shouldn’t even care about the curly-haired boy, but he does. It doesn’t make any sense to Louis. He barely even knows Harry and yet he’s willing to risk everything just to save him. There’s something special about him that drew Louis in the instant he laid eyes on Harry. 

For the past week he hasn’t allowed himself to think about Harry too much. He’s spent every waking minute planning this rescue mission so that he wouldn’t use that time to spiral into a dark place, one that he’s not sure he could climb out of again. He doesn’t think he can live with the weight of another mutant, dare he say friend, being captured and sent to that facility. If he could go back in time would have taken Harry to the mansion against his will. Sure, that might have made Harry hate Louis even more in the long run, but Louis thinks he could have lived with that result He knows that saving the locked up mutants won’t fix the past, but maybe it’ll somehow make up for his actions, or rather lack thereof. 

Louis gets a good look at the group of people training. They’re all smiling and clapping each other on the back for blowing up an inanimate object. They look happy, like really, genuinely happy. Louis doesn’t remember what that feels like, but he caught a glimpse of it with Harry a week ago and it’s made him determined to actually fight for something for once in his goddamn life. Louis lets out a long sigh and gets up to see if his friends want to do some sort of training before their mission. 

 

\---

 

“Okay is everyone ready?” Liam asks, making intense eye contact with everyone. It’s ten minutes to midnight, and everyone going on the mission is currently standing in a loose circle outside of the mansion. Louis’ anxiety has only gotten worse as the clock got closer and closer to midnight. Now that they’re only a few minutes away from actually executing the plan Louis feels like he could throw up at any second. Liam makes eye contact with Louis and Louis can see that Liam is scared too. Louis looks around the circle and everyone has similar expressions of doubt on their faces. 

Nobody responds to Liam’s question. How can they possibly be ready for something as dangerous and life threatening as this? The short answer, is they aren’t. But they can’t just let their fellow mutants sit locked away in that terrible place. 

“We can do this guys,” Louis encourages. “Our plan is perfect and it’s going to work. We just have to believe in ourselves.”

“Oh that’s all?” Niall replies sarcastically. Louis ignores Niall’s comment and continues with his impromptu speech.

“I like to think I’ve gotten to know all of you pretty well over the last week, and I know that you guys wouldn’t be here if you didn’t truly believe in what we are doing tonight. You want to be heroes, like the X-Men. Well here’s our chance.” Louis looks around the circle and sees the fear slowly melt away to determination on his friends’ faces. 

“Louis is right,” Zayn chimes in. “We chose to be here and we can’t back out now.”

“Let’s go kick some ass,” Perrie says. There’s a small cheer of approval from Jesy and Jade. 

“Alright. Louis and Niall you’re up first.” Liam offers out his hands. Niall grabs Liam’s left hand cautiously. Louis takes a deep breath before gripping onto Liam’s other hand. Without warning Liam teleports and the same painful sensations engulf Louis. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that. Bloody hell,” Louis says as soon as they appear outside the building. Louis catches his breath more quickly this time, and doesn’t feel sick for quite as long. They’re hiding in a small patch of trees that’s outside the security checkpoint. He stands up straight and projects an image of more trees. He makes sure it’s long enough for everyone to hide behind. 

As soon as he has the image up, he gives a small nod to Liam, who disappears and then reappears with Perrie and Jade a few seconds later. Both girls put their hands on their knees to quickly catch their breath. Liam disappears again. 

“I hate teleporting,” Jade says between breaths. 

“Not my favorite,” Perrie adds. 

Before Louis can respond Liam returns with Zayn, Leigh-Anne and Jesy. None of whom seem at all affected by the teleportation. 

“Okay, Niall do your thing,” Zayn instructs. 

Niall turns toward the small building with just one security guard. His eyes glow purple as he turns off the cameras at the gate. 

“Done” Niall says, his eyes returning to their normal color. 

“My turn,” Perrie says. She walks through the image and calmly walks up the the guard sitting inside of the booth. 

She says something to the guard and places her hand on his arm. The man immediately slumps over his desk. Louis keeps the image of the trees up to keep their cover as Niall opens the electronic gate for them.  
“Leigh-Anne, and Jesy, you guys know what to do. We’ll be back in fifteen minutes,” Liam whispers. 

“We know our part, go do yours,” Jesy replies. 

Louis walks forward, with his friends following. He focuses on the projection. Normally he wouldn’t pay it any mind, but he can’t screw up tonight. He projects the image of grass over their heads so that no cameras above can see them. 

“Okay, the side door is unlocked. Still working on the cameras,” Niall informs everybody. “It’s hard to say how long we’ll have before they notice us.”

“You said ten minutes,” Liam whispers harshly. 

“It’ll only be eight-ish before the guards are back in that hallway. I can hack into the control room, make cameras go wonky in a different part of the facility.”

“You didn’t think to mention this until now?!” Liam asks incredulously.

“Guys, we’re almost to the door, get your shit together,” Zayn says. 

Liam stays silent as they approach the door. They turn around the corner and see that there’s a guard in front of the door with a large stun gun in his hands. This wasn’t in their plans. Louis turns around to look at everyone. They looked just as panicked as Louis feels. They can’t say anything since they are only a few meters away from him and he would most definitely hear them. Zayn calmly walks closer to the guard, making himself visible. 

“Freeze!” the guards says, turning to point the gun at Zayn. 

Zayn doesn’t say anything, just walks closer to the guard. The man doesn’t move a muscle, Apparently frozen in place. Zayn puts a hand on the man’s temple and the guard crumples do the ground.

“What the fuck was that?” Louis exclaims. He drops the projections, the cameras are off there’s not a person around to see them. 

“Put him to sleep, also put some false memories in his head. He won’t remember anything,” Zayn explains calmly. 

“Cameras inside are taken care of,” Niall says. 

“Let’s do this then,” Jade says. 

Louis opens the door to a nondescript hallway. He quickly looks at the slightly yellowed tiles on the floor and the sterile white walls before conjuring an image to match. He projects the image in a dome like shape and moves steps through the door when it’s ready. 

“Take a right,” Niall whispers. Louis does. “Now at the end of the hall, take a left...”

Niall continues to tell Louis where to turn and Louis follows his instructions. They know the mutants are stored in the middle of the building, and the halls are designed to be maze-like on purpose to throw people off. As they make their way towards the center of the building there are no guards to be seen. Louis finds this odd, but doesn’t mention it. He’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth now. They’re obviously switching shifts right now, but whoever decided to leave the building practically deserted seems strange. 

A few minutes of Niall’s navigation leads them to a hallway with six guards stationed all along the sides. There’s a giant metal door towards the end of the hall with a keypad next to it. There were only meant to be two guards according to the files Niall got. 

Louis signals Perrie and Zayn to take out two of the guards as they walk by. Both of them nod in response and get closer to the guards. Perrie puts her hand on one guard’s arm and he crumples to the floor. Zayn does the same on the other side of the hall. The other guards immediately notice that their co-workers have disappeared and point their stun guns in the mutants general direction. 

“Show yourself!” a woman shouts from the end of the hall. Louis doesn’t listen, just continues walking forward. They get to the second set of guards and Zayn and Perrie knock them out. The remaining two guards have mixed looks of terror and determination on their faces. The woman looks ready to pull the trigger. Louis speeds up so that she can’t shoot them. He doesn’t get there in time. The guards shoots blindly, and manages to hit Zayn, who drops to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Louis keeps going, They don’t have much time. 

Before the woman can shoot again, the other guard presses a large red button on the wall next to him. An alarm immediately starts blaring. Louis keeps the projection up, the guards might know they are there here, but they don’t know exactly where. The group approaches the door, Perrie quickly takes out both guards. Louis drops the projection. 

“Niall how’s the door coming?” Liam shouts.

“I can’t do it!” Niall yells over the deafening alarm. “I don’t know why, but it won’t respond to me.” 

“Get out of the way.” Jade pushes him aside. She plants her feet shoulder-width apart and extends her arms in front of her. 

The large metal door groans with the force being exerted on it. The door is fully opened in about six seconds. Louis runs into the room first. There are three rows of cots and not room for much else, even the people inside of it. Louis counts about twenty mutants in the room, all of them wearing plain white scrubs and large bulky collars around their necks. Almost all of them have their backs against a wall, cowering in fear. He doesn’t see Harry. 

“We’re here to rescue you!” Louis screams. “We don’t have much time.”

Louis doesn’t have to say anything else. The people in the room all rush towards the open door to the hallway. Louis still doesn’t see Harry in the group. But he does see a familiar head of ginger hair. He doesn’t say anything to Ed right now, they don’t have any time to catch up. 

There’s a small crowd around Liam, everyone wants to get the hell out of this building as soon as possible. Perrie, Zayn and Niall are doing their best to keep them as calm as possible. Liam ends up taking four at a time. 

Louis looks back into the room. There’s no one else in here. 

“Harry!” Louis shouts over the alarm.  
Nothing. 

Louis steps further into the room. Harry has to be in here. When Louis gets to the second row of cots a figure in the corner catches his eye. 

Harry is curled up in a tight ball in the corner, rocking back and forth ever so slightly. Louis rushes over to him. He kneels down in front of the curly-haired boy. Harry doesn’t acknowledge Louis’ presence.

“Harry,” Louis says calmly. He places a hand on Harry’s shoulder and he flinches away from the touch. “We have to go Harry.” Still nothing. “Harry it’s me. It’s Louis.”

That seems to get his attention. His eyes focus on Louis’s face. “Louis,” he says softly. 

“Do you --” 

“Louis we have to go now!” Liam yells behind him. 

“Fuck,” Louis mutters to himself. “Do you trust me?” Louis offers a hand to Harry and looks directly into his eyes. 

It takes a few second for Harry to respond. “I trust you.” Harry nods and takes Louis’ hand in his own. 

Louis helps him stand up and puts an arm around Harry’s shoulder before walking towards the door. A task that is a bit difficult seeing as Louis is supporting most of Harry’s weight. Before they’re even fully out the door Liam grabs Louis’ shoulder and teleports them back to the mansion. 

They’re standing in the living room. Many of the captured mutants are sitting down in the armchairs. Niall is going around the room helping them to remove the collars from around their necks. Jesy and Leigh-Anne are passing out blankets and pieces of fruit. 

“Is everyone okay?” Louis asks. 

“As far as we can tell,” Liam responds. He turns to Louis and Harry looking the younger boy up and down. “So this is the infamous Harry.” 

Harry doesn’t react in anyway, just stays glued to Louis’ side. He’s staring at the floor with the same dazed look in his eyes from The Mill.

“Uh...yeah it is,” Louis replies, while he looks at Harry. The younger boy is really starting to freak him out. “You okay, Harry?” Harry still doesn’t react.  
“Hey Harry. You’re safe here,” Liam tries. He reaches out to touch Harry’s arm. The curly-haired boy flinches, curling into Louis’ body further. Louis curls his arm around Harry’s shoulder, which proves to be difficult with the collar still around Harry’s neck. 

“Niall can you come take Harry’s off?” Louis asks. Niall finishes taking the collar off a blonde teenage girl. He whispers something to her and pats her on the shoulder before turning towards Louis. “He’s completely catatonic, maybe getting the collar off will help.”

“Can do,” Niall replies cheerily. His eyes glow purple. The machine makes a series of beeps and mechanical noises before the back pops open. Louis moves his arm and Harry lets out a whimper. 

“It’s okay, Harry. I’m just going to take this off,” Louis explains quietly. Louis stands behind the younger boy and pulls the two sides of the collar apart and over Harry’s head. As soon as it’s off, Harry immediately turns around and embraces Louis. Louis lets the collar drop to the floor so he can wrap his arms around Harry. 

Whatever the hell happened in that place must have been even worse than Louis had ever imagined. 

\---

The next afternoon, Harry is still the same and shows no signs of improving. He’s been glued to Louis’ side every second since they got back. Louis doesn’t mind at all, he’s just concerned for Harry and hopes that this won’t be permanent. Zayn attempted to get a reading from Harry, but the second Zayn got into the curly-haired boy’s mind he screamed at the top of his lungs. Zayn immediately pulled back. Harry had started murmuring softly to himself about “bad men” and the “right thing”. It took Louis nearly thirty minutes to calm Harry down. 

Louis and Harry are currently sitting on one of the loveseats in the living room. It’s oversized, and looks like it was made for a giant. It’s well worn, clearly used a lot in the years people went to school here. It’s a pale peachy color and Louis is able to just kind of sink into it like it still remembers the shape of a human body. Louis has his back up against one of the armrests with his feet resting against the other. Harry is in between his legs. Harry’s legs are dangling over the armrest, as he sleeps somewhat peacefully. 

Louis is carding his hand through Harry’s curls. He can’t stand to see Harry like this. The boy he met in the club had such a vibrant personality, and in just a week the monsters in control of The Mill turned him into a shell of a human being. Louis wants to know exactly who did this to Harry so he personally tear them apart limb from limb. He wants to protect Harry from all the bad things in the world, which is strange. Louis thinks, once again, how little he actually knows Harry but it only makes him want to find out more and more. He wants to know what Harry looks like when he’s just woken up from a good night’s rest. Wants to know how if he prefers tea or coffee in the morning. Louis wants to take chances because of this boy. 

Just a week ago he didn’t want anything to do anyone. He literally convinced Ed that it was the right thing to split up, just because he didn’t want to be responsible for another person for totally selfish reasons. He had been on the run on his own for so long that he had totally forgotten how important it was to trust other people. Last night proved that. He couldn’t have possibly saved anyone if he hadn’t put his trust in his newfound friends. At that moment Ed walks into the living room and sits in an armchair across from Louis and Harry.

“Ed, I am so fucking sorry mate,” Louis blurts out. “I was a dick.”

“You were kind of dick, but I forgive you,” Ed says calmly.

“You’re not mad?” Louis raises both of his eyebrows in shock.

“I was a bit peeved when I got caught. That Ben Winston is such a douche-”

“Fucking Ben,” Louis grits out. 

“Well, he caught me and wouldn’t stop gloating about it and how this would finally be the way to get you, or some shit. He tortured me personally. Tried to get me to give you up, but I didn’t.”

“Why?”

“Because us mutants have to stick together. If he knew this was the hideout for a group of mutants everyone here would be dead or just stuck in that hellhole being tortured or brainwashed. That’s the new thing they’re trying out, a way to get mutants to work for them and be mindless soldiers.”

Louis shivers involuntarily at the thought of mind control in the government’s hands.

“Jesus.”

“Tell me about it,” Ed sighs. “How’s he doing?” 

Louis looks down at Harry and purses his lips. “Not good. I really hope he gets better soon.”

“He talked about you a lot.” 

“Really?” Louis looks at Ed. 

“Kept talking about how he should have gone with you, and how bad he felt for being horrible to you at the club. He wouldn’t shut up. It was kind of annoying after a while,” Ed says with a smile. 

“Oh fuck off,” Louis replies. He can’t help but smile into Harry’s hair. 

“It was cute,” Ed reassures him. He pauses before continuing, much more serious than before. “After a few days though he stopped talking.” Louis’ smile disappears immediately. “Ben took a special interest in him. I think he might have gotten it worse than any of us. 

Louis’ vision starts to get blurry and it takes every ounce of self-control he has to not scream. 

“That fucker. I could kill him.”

“You and me both, mate.” Ed replies before standing up. “Well, I have to help with the cooking tonight. I’ll see you later.” He gives a small wave and walks out of the room. 

Fucking Winny, Louis thinks. He’s the reason Harry is stuck like this, there’s no other explanation. 

“I’m going to take care of him for you,” Louis promises softly and kisses Harry’s head lightly. 

\---

“C’mon Haz you have to eat,” Louis begs the younger boy. It’s been almost four days since Harry has been at the mansion and he still hasn’t left Louis’ side or said anything coherent. And now he won’t eat. Of course he can’t get any kind of answer as to why Harry has suddenly stopped eating. “Please eat something.” 

“Not hungry,” Harry mutters. 

Louis freezes. “Did you just-”

“Tired,” Harry says as he rests his head on Louis’ collarbone and closes his eyes. 

“Yeah...uh... okay,” Louis replies, slightly taken aback. ”Let’s go.” Louis puts his arm around Harry’s shoulder and stands up. “You have to open your eyes, Harry.” It takes a few seconds, but Harry does slowly open them.

“Tired,” he repeats as Louis leads him around the scattered tables in the dining area. 

“I know. We’re going to our room. We’ll take a nice long nap.” 

“I trust you,” Harry murmurs into Louis’ neck. 

Those three little words make Louis’ heart feel like it’s going to explode. 

“Good,” Louis says. He can’t think of anything else to say in response to that. 

Once upstairs, Louis walks all the way down the hall to one of the doors on the very end. The first night Harry and Louis slept in the same room as Perrie and Jade. Niall opted to have his own room. Harry and Louis shared the bed. (Louis found out that night the only way Harry could fall asleep was if he was the little spoon.) Everything was going okay, both of the boys sleeping sound, but at some point Harry woke up screaming. Louis woke up immediately and made himself invisible. Jade and Perrie also woke up screaming. Ten minutes later the entire mansion was up thinking they were under attack. From that moment on Louis and Harry got delegated to the very end of the hallway and everyone else moved further down the hall away from them. Every night since, Harry as woken up in the middle of the night screaming from a nightmare. 

Louis gets Harry into the bed first and then gets in as well, gently pushing Harry to the other side. Harry curls onto his side and Louis does the same, scooching closer to Harry so they’re spooning. The only time Harry doesn’t seem to be plagued by nightmares is when he naps. 

Louis can only imagine the terrible things Harry dreams about at night, so Louis doesn’t mind being helping Harry fall back asleep. The screaming incidents only serve to fuel Louis’ rage towards Ben. He is going to make that man pay for what he made Harry and anyone else endure. The agent is a cockroach who needs to be exterminated. Louis doesn’t particularly care for violence. When he was younger and his friends wanted to watch Saw or some other super violent movie, he would cover his eyes while his friends watched in awe. Louis thinks he could make an exception for Ben, though. There’s nothing worse than a cocky white man who thinks he rules the world. 

It only takes a few minutes for Harry’s breathing to even out. Louis like watching Harry sleep. It’s the only time that he’s actually peaceful, and Louis doesn’t have to worry about it. Not that it does stop him from doing so. Based on what Ed told him, Harry has been like this for almost a week. There was a small part of Louis that had given up hope that Harry would ever return to normal after what was done to him in that terrible place. As soon as Harry actually responded to him in a coherent way he felt hope bloom in his chest for the first time in a long time. 

Louis doesn’t want the feeling to go away. He’s been so used to living in a constant state of fear and panic, always anticipating being caught. He’s so tired of it. He really truly doesn’t want to live like that anymore. And it’s because of the boy in his arms right now. Louis knows the past nine months haven’t been the best and he certainly hasn’t been genuinely happy in an even longer amount of time. But being at the mansion, and more importantly with Harry, has made him realize he can be happy again. 

Before Louis knows it, he falls asleep too. 

\---

 

Louis jolts awake a few hours later. The sun is starting to set outside. Harry is still sleeping peacefully beside him, his eyebrows furrowed. Louis has learned that this means Harry will wake up any minute. Louis decides to lie back down to relax for just a few more minutes before he has to calm Harry down. Louis watches Harry. This is the only time Louis sees a fraction of the emotion he saw in the club. It’s not long before Harry jolts awake too, screaming at the top of his lungs. 

Louis sits up and puts his hands on Harry’s shoulders and begins to massage them gently. “Shh, you’re okay Harry. It was just a dream.”

Harry stops screaming, and leans into Louis. Louis wraps his arms around Harry “I don’t...” Harry trails off. 

“What was that, Haz?” Louis asks quietly, genuinely interested in what he has to say.

“I don’t know where he his,” Harry says clearly terrified. He buries his head in Louis’ chest. 

“That’s okay. You’re safe.” Louis whispers

They stay like that for what feels like a lifetime before Harry starts to shift in Louis’ arms. 

“M’ hungry,” Harry says. 

“Then let’s get you something to eat.” Louis starts to get up, which means unwrapping himself from Harry. 

Harry reaches out to grab Louis arm. “No. Stay,” he implores. Louis looks into his eyes. For once they aren’t completely glazed over, staring at nothing. Harry is actually looking at him, actually seeing him. 

“Okay.” Louis puts his arms around Harry again, as the younger boy curls up in his arms yet again. Louis begins to card his fingers through Harry’s hair absentmindedly. “I’m glad you’re talking again. I wasn’t sure you were ever gonna be back to normal again.”

“I’m okay,” Harry murmurs. 

“If you say so.”

“I’m okay because of you. I trust you.”

 

\---

Two days later, Harry is back to normal. Maybe not his normal, but he’s actually interacting with people other than Louis, and is talking in complete sentences. He still clings to Louis like his life depends on it, but Louis certainly doesn’t mind. 

Harry and Louis are currently curled up on their loveseat in the living room, with Harry in between Louis’ legs It has officially become theirs, mostly because Perrie and Jade started calling it that yesterday and it’s already caught on with literally everyone else. Louis doesn’t mind that either and neither does Harry. 

It’s clear that the loveseat was used a lot before the mansion was deserted. The fabric is well worn and soft and the cushions still have indents in them from where people sat, probably doing their homework or maybe making out in the dark of the night. 

It’s a relatively quiet day in the mansion since it’s so beautiful outside. Harry still doesn’t like being around other people too much, so they stay inside mostly and watch through the window. 

“So we should talk,” Louis says after a long stretch of silence. 

“About what?” Harry looks up at him curiously.

“About what happened to you.” Louis looks his feet and not Harry. 

Harry starts to shake his head vehemently. “No.”

“We have to at some point,” Louis replies. 

“I don’t want to. It’s too much.”

“Clearly. You were catatonic for a little over a week. Look you don’t have to talk specifics about The Mill, but we do need to talk about the club.”

“What about?” Harry feigns innocence. 

“You know what,” Louis sighs frustratedly, looking Harry in the eyes.

Silence falls between them for a few seconds.

“What do you want to know?” Harry concedes. He pulls at a loose string on one of the cushions. 

“Well for starters, why the hell did you give yourself over to the Sentinel Service agent?”

“At the time, I really thought it was the right thing to do. I thought they would like help or something. I didn’t grow up learning to hate mutants. It was only after the explosion that I started to dislike them so much. My sister died that day.”

“Oh my god. I’m so sorry,” Louis consoles the younger boy.

“She was in the building that day. Starting her new job. She was so excited.” Harry starts to cry. Louis squeezes Harry comfortingly. 

“She was one of my best friends, and I still miss her so fucking much.”

“I think about my family every day too,” Louis confesses. 

“Did they die too?” Harry asks curiously. 

“No, I left them. My mom married this guy who despises mutants and once I discovered I had abilities i decided it would be safest to leave them. So I did.” Louis shrugs like it was the easiest thing in the world. 

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?” 

“That must have been a really difficult decision to make.”

“It was,“ Louis agrees. It falls silent for a few seconds. 

“Why did you want to save me?” Harry asks. “At the club. I was horrible to you. So why take a chance on me?”

“Mutants have to stick together. Once I realized that you were one of us, and literally had no fucking idea that The Mill was a place where people get tortured. Despite the fact that you called me a mutie, I felt responsible for you.” 

“Thank you.”

“For what?” 

“For being a decent person. I don’t think I could have taken another minute in that place,” Harry says quietly. Louis wants to ask what happened there, but doesn’t pry. If Harry doesn’t want to talk about it then Louis certainly isn’t going to force him. “It was horrible...” 

“You don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want to,” Louis says into Harry’s hair. 

“I don’t. Not yet anyway,” Harry answers. 

“That’s okay.”

“Ben-” 

“Ben is a dick,” Louis cuts Harry off. 

“He said a lot of things about you.”

“Like what?”

“Mostly how much he hated you, thinks you’re too cocky for your own good.”

“That last bit is true,” Louis admits. 

“He wants to kill you,” Harry looks up at Louis with concern.

“I know, but he won’t get the chance,” Louis replies. 

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because he’s even cockier than me.” Harry lets out a loud laugh. “He’s going to pay for what he did to you.”

“Don’t put your life on the line for me.”

“I already have, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.” 

“Do you really mean that?” Harry moves so he’s sitting cross-legged in front of Louis. He has a very intent look in his eyes 

“I do,” Louis replies honestly, his heart starts to race. 

Harry surges forward to kiss Louis. 

 

\---

 

A few days later Louis and Harry are making out on their bed when someone interrupts them. 

“You two are the fucking worst,” Niall exclaims from the doorway. 

Louis and Harry quickly pull apart and look in Niall’s direction. “Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?” Harry practically whines as he sits straddling Louis’ chest. 

“I did. Like twice.” Niall replies with a triumphant grin on his face. 

“Oh.” 

“What do you want, Niall?” Louis asks exasperatedly. He really wants to get back to what he and Harry were doing. It was very important.

“Rescue mission meeting downstairs. Now.”

“Who are we rescuing this time?” Harry asks, as he gets off of Louis and out of the bed. 

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Niall shrugs and walks out into the hallway. 

Louis quickly gets off the bed and grabs Harry’s hand before following Niall. 

“What do you think is happening?” Harry questions softly. 

“I don’t know, Haz. But it’s probably not good,” Louis responds. He racks his brain trying to think of what kind of emergency they could possibly be assembling for, but comes up empty. The three of them go down to one of the living room, which is filled with just about everyone from the mansion. All of them are completely focused on the old television in the corner. There’s something on the news, but Louis can’t tell what. “What the hell is happening?” 

“You have to see this,” Liam says waving Louis and Harry closer to the TV screen. Louis pushes a few people out of the way so he can actually see. 

On the screen is a young boy standing on top of a building. The camera is zoomed in as far as possible, and Louis can see that they boy is probably only fourteen or fifteen years old. He’s just standing there, with a dazed look on his face, looking straight ahead.

“What does this have to do with us?” Louis asks incredulously.

“Just wait,” Zayn replies solemnly. 

The boy starts to yell in a monotonous tone, “Bring me Louis Tomlinson in thirty minutes or I will jump!”

“What the fuck?” Louis asks horrified. He doesn’t know who this kid is, let alone why he would jump off a building because of him. 

“That’s the look of someone being controlled,” Zayn answers. 

“Like by a mutant?” Harry asks.

“Exactly like that. Do you have any idea who could be doing this, Louis?” 

Louis stares at the screen completely dumbfounded. The only person who hates him enough to pull something like this is Ben, but he’s not a mutant. Unless...no...there’s no possible way that he’s one of them. 

“Ben Winston,” Louis says confidently. 

“But he’s a Sentinel Service agent!” Ed chimes in. 

“I don’t know how, but he’s the only person who hates me enough to do this. Maybe his powers just manifested and that’s why he’s only doing this now.” 

“Maybe when you broke us out of The Mill was when he first experienced them,” Harry comments.

“Yeah, that’s definitely possible. Rare, but possible,” Liam adds. 

“I have to go,” Louis says.

“What? No, he’ll kill you,” Harry replies, gripping onto Louis’ arm tightly. 

“I have to. I can’t let that kid die.”

“Then I’m going with you.”

“No, Harry. This is my fight, not yours.” Louis shakes his head vehemently. He won’t let Harry get in harm’s way again. 

“So you can fight for me, but I can’t do the same for you?” Harry huffs. 

“He’s right, you know,” Perrie adds. “You don’t have to do this alone. We are a team and we’ll always have your back.” 

There are noises of approval throughout the room. Louis fights back tears, he just can’t believe the lengths his new friends will go to. 

“Fine! If you want to risk your lives for me then be my guest!” Louis says in faux exasperation. 

“We already have, mate,” Niall puts his arm around Louis’ shoulder. “Now let’s go kick some ass.”

\---

Five minutes later, Louis is standing in front of the building from the news. The boy is still standing on the ledge, shouting the same thing as before. There’s a large crowd surrounding the building, everyone has their phone pointed towards the boy or at the numerous cop cars, fire trucks or ambulances blocking the road. He can’t see Ben from down here. Harry is still with him. Liam disappeared to grab more people. Everyone is focused on the boy, anticipating what will happen, so nobody sees a group of people appear out of thin air. 

Liam returns with Zayn and Leigh-Anne, and then leaves quickly once again to get the others. 

“So do we have a plan?” Leigh-Anne asks.

“Not this time,” Louis responds.  
Liam reappears with Niall, Perrie and Jesy in tow. 

“Okay so what’s the plan” Liam questions.

“Don’t have one,” Zayn comments. 

“Okay, then.” Liam claps his hands together once. 

“I have one, but it’s a bit stupid,” Louis says right before he walks into the crowd. His friends yell after him, but he can’t hear what they say over the voices in the crowd. Louis walks right up to the yellow crime scene tape that is blocking off most of the road. A police officer stop him from crossing the line. 

“I’m Louis Tomlinson,” he says calmly. The officer’s eyes go wide and he immediately lifts up the tape so Louis can get under it easily. He walks forward, into the middle of the blocked off area.  
“I’m here Winny Boy!” he yells as loudly as possible. He looks over his shoulder to see his friends gathered behind the crime scene tape with similar looks of terror on their faces. “Why don’t you come say hello?”

The young boy gets off the ledge and a sigh of relief ripples through the crowd. A few people start cheering. Louis wants to tell them off, but that’s not important right now. 

“Well, well, well. Look who was stupid enough to show up.” Louis can’t tell where Ben’s voice is coming from. 

“Come and face me you coward!” Louis raises his voice again. He doesn’t feel like playing games with Ben right now. 

“Big words coming from the weaker person.” The words come from the police officer who let Louis under the tape.

“You know just what to say to me don’t you Benny Boy?” Louis goads. He knows just how much Ben hates the nicknames and Louis’ cocky attitude. The cop next to Louis roughly grabs both of Louis’ arms and holds them behind his back. Louis attempts to free himself, but the cops’ grip is too strong. 

Ben calmly walks out of the front door of the building. 

“That’s the man responsible for this! Do something!” Louis yells. Nobody reacts. The police officers, firefighters and EMTs don’t acknowledge Louis’ cries. 

“Don’t bother. They’re all under my control. Even the people in the crowd won’t help you,” Ben replies as he approaches Louis. “I think all the years my power lay dormant, only made them stronger.” Ben stops when he’s just a few inches away from Louis. “I understand why mutants are so cocky now. With all this power at your fingertips how can you not be?”Without warning, Ben punches Louis in the face. Pain blooms in Louis’ nose and he can feel blood flowing profusely from it. “I’ve been waiting to do that since you got away from me last time.”

“Fuck you,” Louis spits out. 

“Ah, ah, ah. I’d be a bit nicer if i were you.”

“You’re going to kill me no matter what so why bother?”

“I’m not going to kill you,” Ben laughs humorously. “I’m just going to make you wish you were dead. No, say thank you.” Ben smiles creully. 

Louis can feel Ben pushing the command into his head and he really tries to not say it. But the thought is in there, like a fucking virus and despite his attempts at not saying it, it still tumbles out of his mouth. “Thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure. Really.” Ben smiles again, and grips the hair at the back of Louis’ head, forcing Louis to look up at him. “We are going to have so much fun.” Ben whispers into Louis’ ear. It makes Louis’ skin crawl in the worst way possible. 

“Stop it!” Harry screams from behind him. 

Ben looks over Louis’ shoulder. “Oh look! It’s the boyfriend! We just had so much fun together at the facility. I’m sure he wouldn’t want to miss out on this.” 

“No! No!” Louis pleads. 

“Come here, Harry,” Ben says loud enough for Harry to hear. Louis can hear his friends telling Harry to stop, but knows it’s futile. He hears Harry walking towards him and Ben. Harry stops at Louis’ side, keeping his eyes trained on the pavement. “Next to me Harry. Don’t be shy.” Harry does as he’s commanded. Ben puts his arm around Harry’s shoulder like they’re best mates. “I think i’m going to take both of you home with me. It’ll be so much more fun to torture both of you.”

“Please let him go. You want me, not him,” Louis begs.

“Ah, but I know I can get to you through him,” Ben replies with a sadistic smirk and an evil glint in his eyes. “Harry, go ahead and punch Louis in the face for me.”

Harry doesn’t hesitate to do as Ben said. Louis groans loudly as pain blooms through Louis’ face once more. Ben finally lets go of Louis’ hair. Louis’ head fall forward, he can’t be arsed to even attempt to lift it right now, so he watches his blood drip onto the cement. 

“See. I can make him hurt you, and...” Ben pulls out a Swiss Army Knife from his pocket. “I can make him hurt himself. Harry why don’t you-” Before Ben can finish his command the knife flies out Harry’s hand towards their friends. 

“Ha, bet you didn’t expect that,” Louis gloats. Before Ben can respond, Liam appears next to Harry, puts his hand on Harry’s shoulder and both of them disappear the next second. Ben looks around, wildly as if the two might still be around him. “See the one thing I have that you don’t is friends.” 

Liam returns behind Ben with Jesy, and Niall. Ben turns around quickly, somehow sensing them there. Jesy spits in Ben’s face and he starts to shriek from the pain of the acid burning his flesh. He falls to his knees, which gives Niall the opportunity to put one of the collars from The Mill around Ben’s neck. 

The cop immediately releases Louis who barely manages to put out his arms to catch himself. 

“What just happened?” the cop asks, clearly dazed from the ordeal. 

“We just saved all of your asses,” Niall replies loudly. 

“Damn straight,” Perrie adds, holding up her hand for a high-five, which Niall enthusiastically slaps. 

Liam grabs Ben’s arm and roughly pulls him up into a standing position. “This man is responsible for everything here today.” Liam pushes the man towards the police officer. “Don’t take the collar off. He can control minds.”

“Okay,” the police officer replies, still not totally with it. He grabs Ben’s bicep and walks him towards one of the police cars. 

“Took you fucking long enough,” Louis says to Zayn.

“Yeah, you only deserved to be punched in the face twice,” Zayn jokes. 

“Wait did we have a plan all along?” Jesy asks looking around at everyone

“Can we talk about this after my face gets fixed?” Louis groans. 

“Oh. Shit, yeah,” Liam says. He places his hand on Louis’ bicep and teleports to the mansion.

As soon as they appear in the mansion, Harry is already at Louis’ side fretting over him. 

“Oh my god. Louis I’m so fucking sorry,” Harry apologizes. 

“The only reason you punched me is become some dick who can control minds made you. You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“Where the fuck is Josh?” Harry looks around frantically as he guides Louis to their loveseat.

“Calm down, Hazza. I’m fine,” Louis lies. He doesn’t need Harry freaking out like this. 

“You took care of me for days on end, now it’s my turn. So shut up and deal with it,” Harry says firmly. 

“Yes, sir,” Louis replies in a exaggerated tone. Harry lies against the armrest of the loveseat and spreads his legs wide enough for Louis to lie between. Louis lies against Harry’s chest. “Ohh this is nice, I might have to be the little spoon from now on.”

“I’m still the little spoon. This is just a one time thing.” Harry wraps his arms around Louis.

“Sure it is,” Louis says. 

Josh rushes into the living room and immediately goes over to Louis. He kneels beside the lovesea. “Okay, Louis this is going to hurt a little bit. Do you trust me?” 

Louis looks up at Harry and smiles softly. “Yeah. I do.”

 

 

 

ONE YEAR LATER:

 

“Louis you have to wake up.” Harry throws himself on top of Louis. 

“Five more minutes,” Louis groans into his pillow. 

“That’s what you said twenty minutes ago. C’mon the students are gonna be arriving in like an hour.”

“Ugh...fine. Get off me.” Harry rolls of Louis and onto his back on the other side of the bed. Louis pushes himself up and puts all of his weight on his elbows. 

“Don’t pretend that you aren’t just as excited as me.” Harry rolls onto his side, propping his head up with his arm. 

“You’re right. I am excited. I can’t believe that we’re actually reopening the school.” Louis grunts as he gets out of bed. He raises his arms above his head to stretch.

“A lot has changed in the last year. And it’s all thanks to you.” 

“Oh, please. I didn’t even touch Ben. it was all Jesy and Niall.”

“But you were the one who was brave enough to face him,” Harry says as he gets off the bed. He walks up behind Louis, and wraps his arms around Louis’ waist. 

“Hmmm, that is true.” Harry runs his nose along Louis’ neck. “Thought we had students to get ready for, Professor Styles.” 

“You got me there,” Harry laughs and pulls away from Louis. “I’ll let you get dressed for your first day, Professor Tomlinson.”

Louis chuckles as he goes over to his and Harry’s peach loveseat in the corner where he set out his outfit for today. He can’t believe that things are so different from just a year ago. There’s still a lot of hatred for mutants in the world, but there have been great strides for them as well. 

After the incident last year with Ben, the government slowly started to make laws pertaining to mutants being locked up. They don’t have to hide anymore. It was only a few months ago that the government asked for Professor X’s school to be reopened, so that mutant children could learn how to properly use their powers, and hopefully not become monsters like Ben Winston. At least that’s what the government says they want from reopening the school. 

Of course Zayn was a difficult to convince, but Louis and Harry managed to talk everyone into reopening the school and now they’re here. The mansion looks like new, and the government even paid for new technology in the classrooms and a new wing for bedrooms. 

Louis looks in the mirror and styles his hair in an artfully messy way. “You can do this,” he says to himself. He runs his fingers through his hair one last time and then walks into the hallway. He and Harry have the same room they did a year ago, but their surrounded by their friends now. Harry only wakes up screaming about once a month, and Louis is always there to help him calm down. 

Louis turns about halfway down the hallway to use the main staircase, something that he doesn’t get tired of because it means a new brighter chapter in the life, one that’s filled with happy endings and not misery. Louis stops at the top of the stairs and watches students enter the mansion for the first time with looks of total awe on their faces. He makes his way down the stairs and greets the new students.

"Welcome to The X-Mansion. You'll be save here. Trust me."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so so much for reading!!!! 
> 
> I really hope you love it as much as i do!
> 
> Please leave kudos and comments or talk to me on [tumblr](http://www.hogwartzlou.tumblr.com)!!!


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